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Niels Esperson Building

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1927, John Eberson. 808 Travis St.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )
  • (The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Built by Houston's foremost female developer of the 1920s, Mellie Keenan Esperson, as a memorial to her husband, the thirty-two-story Niels Esperson Building was the tallest building in Texas when completed. Eberson, a Chicago architect best known for his sumptuous movie palaces, detailed the Niels Esperson Building with Italian Renaissance decor, culminating in the terra-cotta-faced tempietto that crowns the building's topmost setback.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

J. P. Morgan Chase Building (Gulf Building)
Pennzoil Place
J. P. Morgan Chase Tower (Texas Commerce Tower)
Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
One Shell Plaza

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Niels Esperson Building", [Houston, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-HN17.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 333-334.

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